Killer Frost

Chapter 10

Something warm, wet, and sticky touched my cheek, jerking me out of the darkness that I’d been drowning in for what seemed like forever. A small, hopeful yip sounded, and a solid weight bounded up onto my chest.

I opened my eyes to find Nyx wagging her tail and staring down at me with her bright, twilight-colored eyes. When she realized that I was awake and looking at her, she let out another happy yip and licked me on the cheek again. I wrinkled my nose. Vic was right. Her breath wasn’t the best in the world, but I was so happy to see her that I didn’t care. I rubbed her ears between my fingers, and Nyx’s tail thumped against my ribs in contentment.

I sat up and realized that I was in the academy infirmary, lying on one of the hospital beds. I still had on the same clothes I had been wearing earlier. They were ripped, torn, dirty, and bloody from where I’d scrambled up the hill and down the other side, but the briar scratches on my hands and arms had disappeared. Other than a slight headache, I felt fine, and I knew Professor Metis or maybe Daphne had used her magic to heal me.

Nyx licked my cheek again, then hopped from the bed over onto a chair where Vic was propped up. She licked his cheek as well, and the sword’s eye popped open.

“Ugh, fuzzball!” he groused. “I told you not to wake me up until Gwen was awake too.”

Nyx let out another happy yip and hopped back over onto the bed. Vic realized that I was in fact awake and sitting up, and some of the worry eased out of his metal face.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“I’m okay. What’s going on?” I asked. “Where’s

Grandma Frost?”

Vic gave me a serious look, his purple eye dark and solemn. “I’ll let the others tell you.”

A hard knot of fear formed in the pit of my stomach. “The Reapers have her, don’t they?”

“I’m afraid they do.”

I pressed my fist to my mouth, fighting back tears, nausea, and the urge to scream all at the same time. Vivian and Agrona had Grandma Frost at their mercy— something I knew they didn’t have a single shred of in their entire bodies.

The door opened, and Metis stuck her head inside. “Oh good,” she said. “You’re awake.”

She stepped into the room, along with Linus and Coach Ajax. Nickamedes shuffled in as well, leaning on his cane. The librarian shut the door behind him, and the adults formed a row in front of the hospital bed.

“What are you doing to find my grandma?” I demanded. “Do you have any idea where the Reapers have taken her?”

Linus shook his head. “Unfortunately not, Miss Frost. Alexei and Aiko told us what they witnessed of the attack, but I’d like to hear your version of events.”

I told them about fighting the Reapers, chasing after Grandma, and my confrontation with Vivian—including what she wanted.

“I told you that putting the candle on display was a bad idea,” I said, staring at Linus with accusing eyes. “Only the Reapers aren’t going to be stupid enough to try to steal it from the library like you wanted them to. Oh no. They’re going to make us hand it over to them instead.”

Linus look at Metis, then Ajax, and finally Nickamedes. Metis and Ajax stared back at him with sad, but resigned faces, but anger burned in the librarian’s eyes, making them glint like chips of hard blue ice.

“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Linus said, squaring his shoulders and facing me again.

That ball of fear in my stomach morphed into a lump of cold, hard lead. “What . . . what are you saying?” I whispered, barely able to force out the words.

“We do not negotiate with Reapers,” Linus said. “We are not giving the Reapers the candle. We can’t afford to. Not after you told us what it does, and how they could use it to return Loki to his full strength.”

For a moment, I cocked my head to the side, wondering if I’d heard him right—and really, really hoping that I hadn’t.

“You’re . . . you’re not going to save her?” I sputtered in disbelief. “You’re not going to give the Reapers the candle?”

Linus straightened up to his full height, his face harsher and sharper than ever before. “No. We are not giving the Reapers the candle. We cannot do anything that will potentially make Loki stronger.”

My gaze snapped over to Metis and Ajax. They both looked back at me with tired, weary faces.

“I’m sorry, Gwen,” Metis said. “We tried to convince him to change his mind.”

“We all did,” Ajax chimed in. “You know how much we all care about Geraldine.”

Nickamedes didn’t say anything, but he looked at the others, his own features pinched tight with disgust.

“But I’m not going to budge,” Linus finished. “I

can’t. Not as the head of the Protectorate.”

“Can’t? Or don’t want to?” I said in a clipped voice. Linus sighed. “Can’t, Miss Frost. Believe me, I take

no pleasure in this. No pleasure at all.”

“But you . . . you can’t just leave her with the Reapers,” I protested, my hands balling into tight fists. “Vivian and Agrona will kill her—they’ll torture her—just out of spite.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Frost,” Linus repeated. “Truly, I am. But there’s nothing I can do in regard to the candle. Rest assured that I have every available member of the Protectorate out looking for your grandmother. We are doing everything in our power to find her.”

I glared at him. “Just not everything in your power to actually save her, right?”

Linus’s lips pressed into a hard, thin line, but he didn’t argue with me. He couldn’t.

I looked at them all in turn. Linus. Metis. Ajax. Nickamedes. They stared back at me, a mixture of pity and resignation on their faces. Well, except for Nickamedes, who looked as angry as I felt. And I realized that they were actually going to do it. They were actually going to stand by and let my grandma die. Anger roared through me at the knowledge, melting that cold ball of lead in the pit of my stomach, and leaving behind a hard, sizzling determination, more intense than any I’d ever felt before.

“Well, if you won’t save her, then I will,” I snarled. “No matter what it takes.”

I got to my feet, grabbed Vic, and stormed out of the room.

I knew that there was no use arguing with Linus, so I hurried into the waiting room, with Nyx scrambling to keep up with me. My friends were all there—Daphne, Carson, Oliver, Alexei, Logan. So was Raven, sitting at the reception desk, her black combat boots propped up on top of the smooth wooden surface, reading through one of her celebrity gossip magazines like usual. Raven gave me a curious look, then flipped another page. The faint crackle was the only sound in the room.

I stopped in front of my friends and stared at Logan. The sad, stricken look on his face—on all their faces— told me that he already knew Linus wasn’t going to trade the candle for my grandma. I’d thought that Logan going all Reaper and trying to kill me had been bad, but this—this felt like a whole new level of betrayal.

By everyone I cared about.

“Miss Frost, please wait,” Linus said, following me into the room.

Metis and Ajax trailed after him, with Nickamedes bringing up the rear.

I whirled around to face him. “Why? So I can stand around and count down the hours until my grandma dies?”

“It’s not like that at all, and you know it,” Linus said. “As I said before, we will do everything in our power to find your grandmother.”

“Before or after the Reapers kill her?”

Linus pressed his lips into a tight, thin line and crossed his arms over his chest.

Daphne came over and tentatively laid a hand on my arm, pink sparks of magic streaking out of her fingertips and landing on my dirty clothes before quickly winking out. “Gwen, why don’t you take it easy?”

I shrugged off her hand. “Take it easy?” I let out a harsh, bitter laugh. “I can’t take it easy. I can never take it easy. Not until Loki is dead.”

Daphne frowned. “What do you mean?”

I looked around and realized all of my friends were staring at me with the same wary, curious expression as she. Suddenly, I was so tired—tired of all the lies, all the secrets, all the problems that never seemed to end.

I let out another bitter laugh. “You really don’t get it, do you? You don’t know what’s going on at all. None of you do. Except for her.”

I jerked my head at Metis, but she stared back at me, her face neutral.

“What do you mean?” Logan asked, coming to stand beside me. “Gwen, I know you’re upset, but what are you talking about?”

“The candle,” I said. “I’m talking about the damn candle. Yeah, the Reapers want it to heal Loki, but that’s not all they’re going to get out of it.”

Linus frowned. “What else could they possibly do with it? What else could they want it for? Surely, returning Loki to his full strength is their top priority.”

“It may be the Reapers’ ultimate goal, but it’s not his,” I said. “Loki wants to be whole again, sure, for one specific reason—so he can finally murder me.”

“And how do you know that?” Logan asked. “Because,” I spat out the words. “I’m the one who’s

supposed to kill him. I’m the one who’s supposed to kill

Loki.”